I can only see two reasons why Van Gall doesn't fancy him as a CB. One is his height and the second is that he might be a better DM than a CB
McNair isn't taller than him although the former's two years younger so might still can grow.
I can only see two reasons why Van Gall doesn't fancy him as a CB. One is his height and the second is that he might be a better DM than a CB
Just doucble checked, Wiki says Thorpe is 6ft 2", didn't expect that.. Always thought he was under 6ft..McNair isn't taller than him although the former's two years younger so might still can grow.
Is Thorpe's passing good enough to be a holding midfielder?
I hope to god we get top four this year, because then next year we can expect to see a lot more of Pereira, Thorpe, et al (even if it's only in League Cup games).
Wont be here
Haven't watched our youth side months, so am well out of the loop, is Thorpe really leaving? The lad was one of the most highly rated players in the academy from what I can recall.
Didn't realise that he was 22 already. He is only 11 months younger than Phil Jones. He really needs to start moving forwards in his career.
Too many players at United spend far too much time here playing once every fortnight for the reserves, Thorpe being one of them.
The club aren't to blame, however, moreso the poor set up in England for those aged between 18 and 21. There isn't anywhere near enough games and the competition is poor.
If you're a Rooney or a Barkley, or a Jones or Sterling, everything is fine. They're so far ahead of the rest to begin with. But there's so many young players at Premier League clubs that lose out on the most important years of their development because they're not good enough for the first team, so they loiter around in the U21s instead, to their detriment.
They'd be better served playing at a lower level from a younger age, earning game time with professionals and working their way back up through the game if and when they're good enough.
Has Thorpe even played 20 professional games of football yet? Chances are when he's thrown into game after game in the Championship, or perhaps lower, he'll struggle. The guy clearly has a lot to offer hence he's still here, but he needs to start being a professional footballer and not a schoolboy.
Has Thorpe even played 20 professional games of football yet?
Haven't watched our youth side months, so am well out of the loop, is Thorpe really leaving? The lad was one of the most highly rated players in the academy from what I can recall.
Too old and unpicked to see LVG having a change of heart, same as with Vermijl. Michael Keane had proven himself more and wasnt kept
I wouldn't say few cases, that whole youth cup side were kept around without getting chances. Both Keanes, Petrucci, Vermijl, Larnell Cole, Tunnicliffe and even Lingard is 22 and hardly played. Keeping players until 21-22 and not doing much with them is common enough from us recently.At 22 he doesn't have much time left. It's one of the very few cases where we keep a player until he's 21-22 before moving him on, usually he'd be on the move well before now, having been given no chance at United. It's not like his playing time is going to appear all of a sudden from nowhere, he didn't even play during our worst injury crisis.
Another good performance from him, only to sadden his fans for his inevitable departure.
No chance of him renewing in the summer much like Will Keane last season no ?
My guess would be no. Think he'd have got more of look in if van Gaal saw him as first team material. I think Will Keane will go this summer too.
There's no real reason for him to trial with other teams like there is with a lot of the younger lads though. Everybody knows how good he is and there would be a queue of teams willing to sign him without a trialWeirdly if LVG doesn't rate him at all and have no intention to renew the contract he must already have left by now for trialling with other clubs etc.The whole situation is a real myth from the start to end.
I think his lack of 1st team football and being right footed went against him at the start of the season.. Blackett got a shot because of that and Van Gaal clearly saw something in McNair that prompted him to move to the senior team ahead of Thorpe
Blackett was and is more puzzling for me than Mcnair. He is not even solid still in the U21 games.
He's much better than Blackett and way more mature.. Just unlucky that he was right footed and maybe not as good on the ball as McNair? I still dont know how LvG picked McNair ahead of Tom.